1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of digital data processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to the protection of distributed digital content through contained dynamic generation of requested contents within the removable medium.
2. Background Information
Protection of digital contents1 from misuse and misappropriation is a subject of paramount interest to the content creators, as it has direct impact on the content creators' economic interest. The subject matter is also of interest to manufacturers of content rendering equipment, such as manufacturers of computing equipment, as content rendering equipment manufacturers also suffer, if insufficient economic incentives exist to induce creation of content for consumption on the content rendering equipment. As a result, a substantial body of content protection techniques has been developed, and is known in the art. Examples such content protection techniques include but are not limited to the wide array of encryption and decryption techniques.
However, many of these techniques, while robust, are costly, and in particular, unsuitable for certain contents or applications, e.g. contents or applications that are of relatively lower economic values, but nevertheless desire protection from misuse and misappropriation, such as gaming software. Thus, alternative approaches that are more cost effective in protecting certain types of digital contents are desirable.
In particular, notwithstanding the advance of the Internet arid the shift towards online distribution of digital contents, a substantial body of these digital contents, such as gaming software, remains being distributed through removable storage medium2. Thus, alternative more cost effective approaches that accord higher protection to digital content distributed through removable storage medium are particularly desired.
Notes:
(1) The term digital content as used in the present application, including the claims, includes executable as well as non-executable digital contents of all form, such as video, audio, games and the like.
(2) Examples of removable storage medium through which digital contents are distributed include but are not limited to CD, DVD, EEPROM based storage devices, such as PCMCIA cards, Smart Cards, and Compact Flash.
GlossaryCISCComplex Instruction Set ComputerCDCompact DiskDSLDigital Subscriber LineDVDDigital Versatile DiskEEPROMElectrically Eraseable Programmable ReadOnly MemoryHTTPHypertext Transmission ProtocolISDNIntegrated Service Digital NetworkPCMCIAPersonal Computer Memory CardInternational AssociationPDAPersonal Digital AssistantRISCReduced Instruction Set ComputerTCP/IPTransmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocolURLUniform Resource LocatorWAPWireless Access ProtocolWMLWireless Mark-Up Language